Mediamatic Blog
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Relationships: Love, prosecution + trust, despair +
Conference Blogging from Kom Je Ook?
Yes. I am convinced that more than 300 Dutch cultural professionals will keep their eyes open for new opportunities to communicate with me. At least, that is my aspiration after participating in the Kom je ook? seminar organised by Mediamatic in Amsterdam’s public library OBA.
where is my audience
One of the main questions was much more Low-Tech than super RSS or API, as a keynote speaker Nina Simon asked directly from the cultural professionals: What kind of relationship you want with your audience? As a normal cultural heavy-user (I do go to gigs, exhibitions, theatre plays, cinema and I like various forms of culture from Mozart to minimal techno and from Damien Hirst to Rembrandt), I want to turn the question around and share a moment of thinking the relationship I want to built with my cultural institutions!
Honestly speaking, my favorite cultural institutions are Tate Modern in London and Palaís de Tokyo in Paris, even though I don’t live in either of the cities. Still both art spaces are filled with memories of amazement and inspiration. In fact, I tend to visit both when I am around, and during this millennium I have been in Tate Modern 12 times and in Palaís de Tokyo six times, thanks to relatives that keep me visiting in those cities regularly.
When mapping my visits to the online versions of those two mentioned cultural spaces, the amount of visits is much more rare, and focused on practicalities such as opening times and nearest tube stations besides current exhibitions. I think that is pretty surprising, considering that I spent several hours per day online, and I do follow many art blogs, cultural networking sites, artful platforms, creative forums and I even love to share my opinions in many of them. Another keyn...
19.11.08, Michel Langendijk Read more
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Lecture
Lecture Hybrid Toys
Fun and games & hybrid toys
Designing hybrid toys with Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino of Tinker.it
This a summary of and some comments on the excellent lecture of Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino that she delivered in the context of the Cinekid Festival, at 23 October 2008.
Alexandra Deschamps - Sonsino from Tinker.it
Toys are about play, fun, enjoyment, but mainly for kids. Teenagers don't do toys but games, and 'adult toys' conjure up a different context. Toys do start to re-infiltrate the lives of elderly people again, but in a quite instrumental way. Recently in Manchester, UK a playground for elderly people was opened (indeed that beats a stuffy and smelly gym). Also in attempts to counter effects of age dementia, toys are used.
Interestingly, toys haven't changed much over the years. Our idea of what a game is, is totally overhauled by new media, but toys are still pretty much the same as, say, 20 years ago. Toys (judging by what can be found in the shops) have not adopted the possibilites of new media and cheap hardware. They seem to have a kind of conserving bubble around them - why would that be ?
One thing is that the age window to reach kids with toys is shrinking (in sales terms this effect is known as 'time compression') - their play moves over to the screen sooner and sooner in their lives. The average shelf space for a toy in retailers shops is 12 cm. These are big constraints for innovation. And there could also be some kind of implicitly shared nostalgia at play, that makes people look for the pl...
11.11.08, Deborah Meibergen Read more
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Exhibition
El HEMA is open again!
Now on show in Rotterdam
On Saturday 25 October 2008 a new El HEMA exhibition was opened in Rotterdam. The Mediamatic concept was adopted by Kosmopolis and will tour Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and several festivals.
Rik Grashoff (wethouder Rotterdam) en Rene Repko (HEMA B.V.) happy in de El HEMA Rotterdam
El HEMA opening
The Arabic version of the Dutch department store HEMA opened in 't Gemaal, a new cultural spot just off the Afrikaandermarkt on the south side of the river. In the middel of the largest arabic and middle eastern population of the city.
The El HEMA Rotterdam is opened from 25 October until 24 December 2008:
Wednesday: 10.00 – 17.00
Thursday: 12.00 – 17.00
Friday: 12.00 – 19.00
Saturday: 10.00 – 17.00Kosmopolis presents the exhibition El Hema in cooperation with
TheBrandHotel. EL HEMA is a concept of Mediamatic, Amsterdam and was on show from Augustus 2007 until Januari 2008 at Mediamatic. More than 50.000 people visited the El HEMA. It won the Dutch Design Price in the category Visual Identity.Mediamatic developed the concept of El HEMA to draw attentioin to five new digital Arabic typefaces, that were developed by Dutch Arabic design teams.
28.10.08, Michel Langendijk 1 commentsRead more
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Kiki on Steroids opening night
On Friday October 17th the new exhibition opened. With around 350 people it was a big success! Kiki on Steroids is about transgender and self-representation on the internet. The exhibition is open from Wednesday - Sunday between 12.00 - 20.00 hours till January 4, 2009.
Kiki on Steroids opening
Our colleague and one of the maze builders was transformed into a beautiful male.
Confrontations in the dark.
20.10.08, Deborah Meibergen 1 commentsRead more
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Interview Kael T Block
On XX Boys and more
Mediamatic's exhibition Kiki on Steroids! presents Kael T Block's project XX Boys, a collection of photographs of transboys. Rooted in his own experience as a transboy or 'FtM' (Female to Male), the series is a personal exploration of masculinity, gender binaries and gender fluidity. The photos are often close-up, in-your-face portraits, that directly confront the viewer. An important aspect of the project is its presence on the internet, where the trans community comes together and XX Boys can communicate with each other and participate.
We talk to Kael about his personal investment in XX Boys, the project's growth and what it has already achieved.
Kael - Paris, by Kael T Block
Can you tell a little bit about how your project XX Boys started and developed? Is it still growing today?
Kael: When I started my transition in 2003 I was really looking for visual documentation about the transition, and I wished there was a project, or a website, with pictures and testimonies of other transboys to help me through my questioning, and fears. I started taking self portraits, and to connect with other FtMs on communitarian websites like Friendster and MySpace, forums, only they were on the other side of the ocean! I started traveling, opened a blog, and connected with more and more FtMs online, friends of friends, friend of models, and it snow balled. I've traveled a lot in the United States, in Canada, and I started to travel a bit more in Europe to balance it.
I took a year and half to work on a website project, with personal profiles for the models, pictures, videos, writing, links and promotion of FtMs artists and projects. FtMs can register online to pose for the project but can also send their pictures and artwork for the photo contest or the zine, people can support and participate to the project a lot of different ways. The new website should open in a couple of months.
XX Boys is grounded in your personal experiences as a transboy. Was it a difficult decision or a big step for you to engage in a project on such a personal level?
Kael: Actually to start this pro...17.10.08, Tanja Baudoin Read more
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Hackers Camp Day 8
Today is the last day of Picnic. Willem had a run using ikRun with Monique van Dusseldorp, organizer of Picnic and Monique won.
Willem also presented Mediamatic Hackers Camp masterpieces at the conference.
ikWin! was a big hit today, Friend Drink Station was sold out and V-Bird collapsed yesterday after gloriously flying for one day.
Duck Race got a lot of attention, Breathylzer is a success, as well as Massage Couch and, of course, The Breedrs.
ikWiN project is a great success
27.09.08, Willem Velthoven Read more
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Hackers Camp Day 4
Day 2 ended @ 2 in the morning and Day 3@ 3 in the morning, the longest night so far.
Will Day 4 beat the record?
All projects are progressing and looks like our teams will meet their deadlines.
Last night after some spicy Indian take-out Marc Boon got his RFID-over-I2C-serial-interface, which is a component used by three different projects: V-Bird, Media Tower and RFID Racer.
Today locations will be finalized for each project.
This is just an experiment -
V-Bird team are looking for possible casing for their flying camera
Morning
Today another volunteer arrived. Welcome Silvia Janoskova.
Also a camera crew from Tvents came by to make a news item on Hacker’s Camp.The Breedrs, small personal creatures, are very close to getting their pond. The team still needs sand and a beamer. Luis is working on genetics and Neil on behavior of creatures and the project is coming together well.
Basic construction for Massage Couch is completed and now comes the technical part: LED signalization systems, speakers, and creating interfacing with Anymeta.
For Mario Carts=RFID Racer basic visualization will be complete today and IKWIN! project needs a bell to go “ping!” when you win and they are still looking for platforms.
Department of Information Security and Privacy project Media Tower needs horn speakers and program for streaming on screens looks great. It’s designed so if you swipe your tag, it will screen your image and your name will be announced through horn speakers. The team is convinced it will have a great impact on the audience.
22.09.08, Willem Velthoven Read more
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Hackers Camp Day 1
Mediamatic is going to kick start this year’s Picnic with a first live event, a Hackers Camp, a team of professional geeks and interaction designers with technical and creative skills who will use RFID and physical computing to realize the most creative and ambitious of ideas. Mediamatic has assembled a nerd’s paradise – a bunch of exciting equipment for participants to play with while questioning social interaction and identity.
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The Group
Morning
A brightly lit room of Oosterlijk Meterhuis is filled with shiny laptops, cords and strong smell of coffee. After a brief introduction, Klaas lists available equipment and seems like brainstorming is about to begin. The anticipation is high but there are still a few obstacles on the way - the participants have to familiarize themselves with the working environment, RFID tags, RFID readers, social interaction concept and the coffee machine. So in short the brainstorming will take place after lunch starts up the brains.
Afternoon
Semi-sunny afternoon weather is positively stimulating grey cells and the results are exciting.
19.09.08, Deborah Meibergen Read more
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Call for Artists
Mediamatic Travel Boarding Call 2009
Aneta Szyłak and Rebecca Gomperts at Modelarnia in Gdansk, Poland -
Modelarnia was an independent art space on the old Gdansk Shipyards where Lech Walensa started the uprising against the Polish communist regime.
In 2009 Mediamatic Foundation, in collaboration with Partizan Publik, will open the very first Do It Yourself Travel Agency. Mediamatic Travel will facilitate trips to the contemporary cultural scene worldwide. Contemporary Culture is produced in many places where the general audience just imagines civil war, pyramids, famine or cheese. Mediamatic Travel will connect local operators in the arts to professional visitors from abroad and peers. The goal is to enhance visibility and promote collaboration.
Suckling Pig Band in Guangzhou. -
Pigs are soo much more musical in mainland China
We’ll use 3 main channels: a global on line network, a shiny travel catalogue and an exhibition in Amsterdam, Mediamatics home base.
Mediamatic Travel will be an art project itself: utilising embedded tourism to achieve a global sensory network for creative innovation. Among our first batch of destinations are Cairo, Damascus, Novosibirsk, Tbilisi, Beirut, Kabul, Durban, Dubai, Nairobi, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Mexico City, Gaza City, Istanbul, Tirana, Prague, Kyoto, Detroit and Rio de Janeiro.
We are looking for key people around the world to work with us on this project.
If you live in a city so exciting worth showing off, there are a number of different ways in which you can participate in Mediamatic Travel. Linking into the global cultural underground, with a climbing level of involvement, you could become a friend, an agent, a guide or operator:
— Friends: Register to our site and make new friends using our social network tool.
— Guides: Conjure up city tours in you city, show people your work and / or the work of people you value.
— Agents: Advocate you and your city on the online network, make suggestions for people, places and venues to explore.
— Operators: Organise complete full package trips to the cultural scene of your city and region.The local service will have a standard format and will be provided at a standard fee. The aim is to make the service profitable for all local parties ...
08.09.08, Merel Matic Read more
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Mediamatic protesteert in stijl op Uitmarkt
"Minister en Kamer: houdt Mediamatic niet klein"
Protest van Mediamatic tijdens de Uitmarkt op 31 augustus 2008 met de Burka Big Band (van Sietske Tjallingii) en de lompen Fashion show (met Martin Butler en Andrea Crews). Inzet: zorgen dat het positieve advies van de Raad voor Cultuur door minister Plasterk wordt gevolgd. Geen zuur protest, want we zitten nooit bij de pakken neer.
Protest Mediamatic en Minister Plasterk -
Bij Paradiso kwam minister Plasterk zelf een kijkje nemen bij het protest. Voorafgaand aan het cultuurdebat in Paradiso waren we onze Guerilla fashion groep en de BBB aanwezig. Later tijdens het debat leek de minister te suggereren dat hij instellingen die een zeer goed advies hadden gekregen van de Raad voor Cultuur mogelijk toch niet laat terugvallen op hun oude budget. In het geval van Mediamatic gaat het om een terugval van 66% tussen het advies (666.000) en de huidige situatie (bijna 230.000 euro). Ruim vier ton minder voor e-cultuur.
Mediamatic protest -
Op de Uitmarkt poseerden we onder de "Hoed van Plasterk" op de Piet Hein Kade. Het leverde mooie beelden op in het AD, de NRC en De Telegraaf. Zie ook de landelijke campagne www.waarbenjemeebezig.nl
Burka Big Band protest -
De Burka Big Band geeft tijdens de Uitmarkt een stil concert voor Paradiso in protest tegen subsidiebeleid van minister Plasterk. The BBB is een project van Sietske Tjallingii en konden we in juni al een keer inzetten bij een protest in de Tweede Kamer.
04.09.08, Michel Langendijk Read more
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iPhoneDevCamp
This weekend Peter Robinett from Bubble Foundry organised the first European iPhoneDevCamp. Mediamatic hosted the event. Around 80 people came on this nice and sunny day to hack their iPhones and make new apps. More details about the results will be published soon.
Picture taken by Marco Wessel from Flickr.
Peter Robinett (Bubble Foundry) is interviewed by Bright. Picture taken from Flickr by Matthijs van Abbe.
01.09.08, Deborah Meibergen Read more
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